Blessings in Disguise

I will be the first person to admit that when Kellen decided to accept a managment role with his employer, I wan't the most thrilled person on the planet. The longer hours, more traveling, more responsiblity, seemed like more than we could handle at the time. However, I knew I only had one choice and that was to support my husband in whatever he decided to do. Now, a few months into it, I'm realizing that his new job has given Kinslee and I so much time together, just one on one, something we didn't have before. Whenever he is away for meetings, it is like a big slumber party, we paint our nails, take bubble baths with LOTS of bubbles, watch movies and sleep in bed together, often telling storries and giggling until we both fall asleep. Those are things we really don't get to do when he is home, he'd rather play tractors or watch deer hunting with her!! Don't get me wrong, I do wish he was home more, but I've learned that I can either sit around and complain when he's gone, or I can make the best of it and enjoy every minute of the time I get alone with her! :)

ahh the simple joys

Kellen and I stopped using Kinslee's baby monitor around 6 months ago (about the time where she thought it was AWESOME to sleep with Mom and Dad!). I never got around to putting it in the "baby tote" so its just been collecting dust. I finally used it this weekend when she was napping and we were working out in the yard. Now I'm sitting downstairs working on my computer listening to her play kitchen and feed her babies their bottles and it makes me so happy! She tries to put diapers on the babies and makes them go to sleep all the time saying.. "shh baby go ny ny." She is completely content playing in her room for hours, just talking up a storm!! I have to be careful though. Last week I let her play alone and then I heard her screaming. I went in her room and she had the lid off her fish tank and both hands in it yelling "FISHY COME PLAY, I WANT YOU." That poor fish managed to escape her hands and I had to explain that fishy can't plan, we can only look.

Well, I'm hearing some noises that make me nervous so I better go check out what she is up to! :)

Swim Lessons = Success

Kinslee is done with her first year of swim lessons at the Y. After a few rough sessions, she turned out to be quite the little fish. It helped she always had an audience, whether it was Grandpa Meyer, Aunt Jayne, Daddy or Mommy!! I'm sure the other parents thought we were nuts and in some ways they are right!! I got some great pictures of her and I will post them soon! Kinslee can now: blow bubbles (ok, lick the water), jump in by herself, go underwater, throw balls without losing balance, run around in the shallow end, kick her legs, move her arms, and flirt with the boys at the pool.

I wish I would have taken a video camera along. There was a little boy, maybe 3 years old that would be sitting on the edge waiting for the next session to begin when Kinslee's class was working on jumping in the water. Kinslee would stand on the edge of the pool, turn around, smile at the boy and then jump in. After she was in the water, she'd look at him again like "did you see that, I just jumped in the water by myself!" It was soo adorable and his mom thought so too!!

My next goal for Kinslee is really working with her on getting potty trained. She'll go in the toliet every once in a while. Tonight she stood up in the bath, yelled "POTTY" and proceded to pee in the water. So, she definetly knows what's going on. She'll usually tell me when she is about to #2, but is kind of terrified of going in the toliet. Any suggestions are welcome!!!

Well, I must get back to the giant pile of laundry that needs to be folded. The clothes might have dust on them by now! :) I hope I'm not the only one who lets it pile up! :)

Swimming Lessons

It has been quite a long time since I have posted here. 1 year and 3 months to be semi-exact. I love reading blogs that some of my friends write, so I’ve decided to get this going again!! I promise to stick to it this time!!

Last week Kinslee got a stomach virus that pretty much made her miserable for six days straight. I won’t go into details on the symptoms, but if you were camping with us Memorial Day weekend, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Kinslee started swimming lessons at the YMCA in Lincoln this week. I’m not sure if I’m smart or crazy for beginning them this early… it can’t hurt anything. Well it hasn’t gone as superb as I envisioned. I mean, as long as she has the matching swimsuit, flip flops, hat and cover-up, everything else falls into place, right?? Wrong. She wasn’t feeling completely better on Tuesday, the first day of her lessons, but I decided to take her anyway. After all, I had already paid for it, there were no make-up classes and I thought it might be good to get her mind off of feeling yucky.
The lessons started out okay, she liked splashing in the water, but once we worked on the back float and moving arm & legs she was over it. The lessons are 45 minutes long and it felt like we were there for hours. We spent the final 15 minutes sitting on the edge watching all the other babies have fun.
Lessons on Thursday went a lot better. She was eager to get into the water and loved walking around in the shallow end. She even pushed me away when I tried to hold her hand. We played ring around the rosie and floated on our backs. About 30 minutes into the lesson, she just screamed and cried. I decided to spare everyone else in the pool and be done for the day. I'm not sure why she hits a wall half way through, I just hope it gets better next time.